BALDASSARI, PIETRO. — From 1794 he was secretary to Msgr. Diego Innico Caracciolo, governor of Fermo, and subsequently chamberlain to Pius VI, whom he accompanied when, in 1788, he was transferred to Florence and then to Grenoble and Valence.
Having settled in Naples together with Caracciolo, who had been appointed cardinal, he composed a report, which he published in Modena in four volumes under the title: Relazione delle avversità e patimenti del glorioso papa Pio VI negli ultimi tre anni del suo pontificato (1840–43), a work of primary historical importance. In 1839, a Histoire de l'enlèvement et de la captivité de Pie VI by Abbé B. was published in Paris, anticipating the Italian edition.
BIBL.: G. Moroni, Diz. di crud. storico-ecclesiastica, LIII, Venice 1851, p. 115 ff.; F. Bonnard, s. V. in DHG, VI, col. 324.
Benedetto Gioia